CATHAYPacific is hoping savings achieved through the Oneworld alliance will help reverse its fortunes after the carrier reported its first annual loss in 35 years.
UK country manager Adrian Gane said Cathay believed it had done all it could to make savings over the last year by cutting its workforce by 2,000 staff, but the loss of ú49m in 1998 compared to a ú162m pre-tax profit for the previous year meant it had to turn to partners for help.
He said Cathay would implement joint development of routes, combine sales and marketing to provide a single Oneworld point of contact and initiate joint purchasing with British Airways, Qantas, American Airlines and Canadian Airlines. Co-operation will be phased in through the year.
He said: “We will mesh the schedules better and aim to deal with each other’s tickets.”
Cathay’s base at Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport will be positioned as Oneworld’s south-east Asian hub to complement Singapore and Bangkok.
One of the pieces of the Oneworld jigsaw to put in place is co-operation between Cathay and BA.
The carriers are unable to codeshare on Hong Kong services, but are believed to be working towards an agreement – which is expected to be challenged by rival Virgin Atlantic.
However, Gane denied talks were taking place, but pointed out BA and Cathay’s schedules complemented each other.
“We still compete on the route, but if we are full we would push sales of our Oneworld partners,” he said.
Gane said a new task for Oneworld was to raise its worldwide profile with a massive branding exercise with agents, operators, airports and the public.
A casualty of Cathay’s membership of Oneworld will be its codeshare agreement with BA rival British Midland. Gane said the deal was being reviewed.